The Kinetic Organisation

The Kinetic Organisation - a really interesting piece from Andrew Mason - well worth a thing about on

http://www.flexibility.co.uk/flexwork/general/andrew-mawson-09-12.htm

The 21st Century alternative to hierarchical organisations - it is my goal to make my next business based on the below principles (a big thanks to Phil Jones from Brother for showing me the light....)

Have you ever wondered how traditional, hierarchical organisations actually work on a day to day basis given all the frustrations of working in them?

Well, earlier this year with the support of our sponsors Regus, AWA’s research team undertook a programme designed to investigate the inefficiencies of traditional organisations and design an organisation better suited to the needs of owners, citizens and society. We have called this the ‘The Kinetic Organisation’.

So what’s actually wrong with ‘traditional organisations’ ?

Layering – Layers of expensive managers act as communication and control nodes, translating, checking and sometimes ‘air brushing’ messages - all adding cost and slowing change.

Creativity - Well qualified middle managers demonstrate their ‘value’ by intellectualising decision-making. They create work and through their desire to ‘protect’ the organisation, make innovation by others difficult.

Silos - Power, investment and resources are deployed in top down ‘divisional’ silos, creating a vertical and downward focus when many processes run across organisations. This makes working and processes sub-optimal.

Contracting for skills – Given economics and market changes, companies' offers of ‘evergreen’ employment contracts is unsustainable. This leads to many broken promises, loss of knowledge and self-confidence.

Change – ‘Change’ is driven by the need for profitability and not the desire to make all processes and operations perpetually competitive, leading often to unemployment and broken promises.

Offices and support services – Commitments to long term, inflexible office leases and support contracts are regarded by leaders as an inevitable cost of doing business, with little concern for business manoeuvrability.

Information Technology – IT is preoccupied with keeping core systems running and protecting the organisation from security risks and doesn't focus enough on personal productivity.

Legacy – ‘Live for today’ leaders focus on maximising profit ‘on their watch’. This involvves making commitments that look cheap but which limit the manoeuvrability of the business for future generations of managers.

Risk – Every business/division with an organisation is treated the same regardless of its specific activities, risk profile and needs. Consequently units can be burdened by process and policy that make no sense.

Time – Organisations don’t really understand what their people are spending time on or the cost of it: time is in effect treated as a ‘free’ resource.

Our conclusion….that the traditional organisation is no longer fit for purpose and that was universally the view of the 70 leaders that took part in the study.

A new model: The Kinetic Organisation

Using the combined input from our community of leaders (focus groups and surveys), our knowledge of the future through our 2020 Visions research programme, our experience of applying alternative models for work, place and organisation in large organisations and our intimate knowledge of running a ‘hierarchy-less’ organisation for nearly 20 years, we have defined ‘The Kinetic Organisation’.

From our study we first nailed down a set of ‘ 6 Fundamentals’ These are a set of organisational design requirements from which everything else flowed, as follows.

The Kinetic Organisation must:

Allow the enterprise to ‘turn on a dime/sixpence’ changing without pain to adapt to new threats, opportunities and economic conditions.

Be well placed to meet its promises to clients, shareholders and people.

Maintain a flexible cost base and infrastructure so that it can ‘inflate’ and ‘deflate’ its operations without incurring penalty costs.

Create a ‘safe’ environment in which people feel able to contribute and share their knowledge and innovation. This includes constructively challenging the way things are done so as to achieve a better end.

Constantly keep its products, services, people skills, capabilities, processes, infrastructure and costs under review to make sure every element of the business always remains fresh and competitive.

Allow elements within each structure to be treated and structured in different ways depending on their risks, activities and the markets in which they operate.

The 20 Operating Principles of the Kinetic Organisation

We drew on lessons from sport, terrorism, academia and nature to build 20 Operating Principles. These are the rules by which the Kinetic Organisation would operate in relation to Infrastructure, Cost-base, Structure, Leadership, People and Culture, Management Information, Environment and Risk.

Replacing hierarchy

In order to maintain order, you need to attain an alternative structure. In the Kinetic Organisation, a natural ‘molecular’ structure replaces command, control and hierarchy. A series of cells are linked together and effectively ‘loaded’ in free space to deliver the organisation’s outcomes.

A network of new roles ensures that each ‘structure’ in the organisation operates effectively to maintain its energy without diluting the organisation's inherent manoeuvrability. This means that it can evolve with ease to meet the changing demands of its customer and labour markets.

Kinetic Organisation –The 10 roles:

Executives – The people who actually perform the acts of productive work.

Leaders – The people who lead groups of Executives to deliver a pre-determined outcome.

Owner – interested in long term well-being of the enterprise, sets direction and articulates the purpose and mission in language that people can engage with emotionally.

Wise owl – brings wisdom so that the organisation doesn’t re-learn old lessons.

Recruiter/Coach – recruits appropriately cultured and skilled people on contracts consistent with the organisation's ability to promise tenure, ‘places them’ within the structure, ‘owns’ them, and manages their skills development. People are on loan to the structure.

Agility Controller – makes sure that decisions and commitments made by individual cells do not impair the ‘agility’ of the enterprise in the long run.

Rule-maker/referee – Makes sure there is fair play between cells in line with the rules that have been developed for the effective running of the organism.

Connector – Pro-actively seeks to make links between cells for the benefit of the enterprise -sharing knowledge and making sure that effective interworking takes place.

Workplace infrastructure deliverer – provides all hard technology and soft infrastructure and training to help cells deliver their best performance.

Work loader – Acts on behalf of the owner to load the cells, adjudicates over conflicts in tasks, and monitors the quality of output as seen by the receiving cell.

Over the coming years the developments in technology will eclipse anything we have seen to date. This provides organisations with the opportunity to strip away hierarchy and deliver organisations that are more effective, energetic and efficient.

The issue is a simple one. Which organisations will be brave enough to pioneer these new organisational models to provide confidence - and evidence - to less brave leaders to demonstrate that it is ‘safe’ to part company with the old, traditional ideas associated with the traditional organisation and move to new models?